1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera capable of bracketing exposure.
2. Related Background Art
The object of the bracketing exposure is to expose at an optimum exposure value an object whose brightness or lightness cannot be corrected by an automatic exposure system or expose the object at an optimum exposure value by compensating for variations in film speed. Therefore, in the conventional cameras capable of bracketing exposure, the difference in exposure value setting is .+-.0.5 or .+-.1.0 at the most.
In the case of bracketing exposure, it is preferable to continuously expose a predetermined number of exposures of the object by a single shutter release. Therefore, the conventional main bracketing exposure procedure is such that in response to one actuation operation (that is, one depression of a shutter release button), the total of three pictures are obtained by changing the exposure values; that is, the first picture is exposed at a suitable exposure value determined by a camera; the second picture is exposed by stepping an exposure value by one step on the negative side; and the third picture is exposed by stepping an exposure value by one step on the positive side.
Since the bracketing exposure is utilized to attain the above described objects, in general means for setting the bracketing exposure is so designed and constructed that the bracketing exposure mode is terminated every time when one bracketing exposure has been accomplished and every time when a photographer judges that the bracketing exposure is necessary, he/she sets the camera into the bracketing exposure mode again.
In the case of the bracketing exposure under the above-described conditions, when the last frame of a film has been exposure, the bracketing exposure mode is stopped by disregarding the remaining frames even when one or more pictures for bracketing exposure are remained.
However, recently the expression of picture is diversified so that it does not suffice to a photographic picture which was photographed at an optimum exposure value when judged objectively. It follows therefore that there has been proposed a camera with the bracketing function that the difference in exposure value steps as well as the total number of frames to be exposed by stepping the exposure values can be increased so that the object whose exposure cannot be uniquely determined in the case of an exposure can be exposed at various exposure values determined by taking into consideration of the exposure values subjunctively determined by a photographer. As to a shutter release chance, there has been a demand for the function or mode in which even in the case of a fundamentally same object, each frame is defined or confirmed and then exposed. Therefore there has been proposed a camera which can be switched between the bracketing exposure mode in which a predetermined number of exposures can be continuously made only by depressing a shutter release button only once and the individual exposure mode in which each exposure is made every time when the shutter release button is depressed. The camera of the type just described above is used in many case in order to positively enjoy the pictures photographed by the bracketing exposure mode rather than to obtain a picture as a precise record. As a result, it becomes cumbersome for a photographer when the bracketing exposure mode is stopped every time when one bracket exposure mode has been accomplished. Furthermore, in the case of the bracketing exposure mode which permits a relatively large number of exposures, the possibility that, during the bracketing exposure mode, the last frame of a film is exposed prior to the termination of the bracketing exposure mode, becomes high. Therefore there arises the problem that when the bracketing exposure mode cannot be continued at the trailing end of a film, it becomes inconvenient for a photographer to reset the bracketing exposure mode again when the bracketing exposure mode is stopped at the end of the film.